Now here's what should be on MTV - - The AccoLade, and all-girl rock band in Saudi Arabia that has to keep its performances a secret:

Dina and Dareen wear their hair teased into thick manes and have pierced eyebrows. During an interview at a Starbucks here, they wore black abayas — the flowing gown that is standard attire for women — but the gowns were open, showing their jeans and T-shirts, and their hair and faces were uncovered.

Another great find from the Unholy Maelstrom. This is a medal used by the para-military counter-intelligence agency known as The Invisible Fist. This particular medal is awarded to the most accomplished individual at lockpicking and escape tactics.

The Max Planck Institute's latest journal focuses on China, and the editors wanted the cover to feature something from a classical Chinese text. But they somehow ended up printing text from a handbill for a Macau strip club. Among other things, it said "Hot Housewives in action!"

Treevenge details the experiences and horrifying reality of the lives of Christmas trees. Clearly, for trees, Christmas isn’t the exciting “peace on earth” that is experienced by most. After being hacked down, and shipped away from their homes, they quickly become strung up, screwed into an upright position for all to see, exposed in a humiliation of garish decorations. But this Christmas will be different, this Christmas the trees have had enough, this Christmas the trees will fight back. Treevenge could be a short film about the end of days for Christmas trees, or perhaps, the end of humanity?

Talk about mad genius—from conception to execution, padded red cover with 3-D effect to the up-close-and-personal images inside, this anatomy book is as engrossing as any science fiction. Dr. Frankenstein, shown in a sepia photograph standing in a laboratory, gazing at a skull he holds in one hand, invites readers to join him as he creates a human being (Don't look so startled, he chides the meek). From there it's on to atoms and the skeletal system, tissues and organs, and so on, presented on visually rich spreads. The story line is sustained with brief, pun-happy journal entries (Day 11 [on eyes]: Assistant has seen the light), and the theme reinforced with remarkable design. Gothic fonts and engraved illustrations and vignettes (in red and black and also hand-colored) blend with state-of-the-art images from MEG scans, gamma scans and other advanced technology. Clear explanations broken into easily assimilable captions and text blocks encourage the reader. The only flaw: the subject most likely to interest the target group, the reproductive system, receives such timid mention as to be almost nonsensical (Male and female reproductive systems differ in structure, but both are involved in producing special cells that join up to make babies).

Saturday, December 27, 2008

I'm so sorry, "statutory rape"? I've got to tell you, I'm so offended by that. No, I really am. I genuinely am. To me, that is absolutely not this story at all. That boy knows exactly what he's doing. For a start, Hanna Schmitz thinks that he's seventeen, not fifteen, you know? She's not doing anything wrong.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Back in November, McDonald's new minimalist store in Tokyo got a huge amount of attention on the web. I suggested at the time that the whole thing was some "elaborate prank." Indeed, it turns out McDonald's hired 1,000 actors to stand in line. Via.

It seems like an absurd missed opportunity that Apple hasn't put on sale toy versions of the adorable Justin Long and John Hodgman puppets from Laika's Mac ads. But there's a few photos of the puppets in this Flickr gallery.

1. Death penalty conviction might be overturned because sequestered jurors and sheriff's deputies assigned to watch them were allegedly having sex. One juror said, "Acts of sex and insubordination were scandalous and unspeakable . . . " Via.

1. David Horvath's mother was a toy designer. She worked at Mattel, but was largely required to keep her job a secret. "The only way [he] knew she still worked there was through catalogs and purple 'He-Man' errors she brought home." Learned from this interview.